Collection Online as of September 27, 2023
1903
Part of a set. See all set records
Photogravure
Museum Appropriation 1995.199.4.b
Frederick H. Evans
Frederick H. Evans British, 1853-1943
Born in Whitechapel, London, Frederick Evans was the preeminent architectural photographer of his day, known particularly for his views of British cathedrals. He was also known for portraiture, with sitters such as George Bernard Shaw and Aubrey Beardsley.
Originally a London bookseller, Evans retired in 1898 to devote himself full-time to photography. He was a passionate devotee of straight, or pure, photography. His elegant, unaltered platinum prints relied on form and light to probe the spiritual elements of architectural space and to reveal the character and nuance of the subjects of his portraits. Evans, who exhibited his work widely, extended his aesthetic beliefs to the realm of display; he is credited with transforming British exhibition practice -- the crowded Victorian salon giving way to a venue where prints were shown singly and clearly, out of competition with one another.
Alfred Stieglitz was a great admirer of Evans's work, which was published in Camera Work (1903) and shown at the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession in New York (1906). A member of the Royal Photographic Society, Evans was named an Honorary Fellow in 1925 and was elected to the Linked Ring in 1900. T.W.F.